"Deal."
Rudra had never agreed to anything so fast.
".....deal," Tish nodded slowly, her eyes guarded. Rudra walked back to his bed, grabbed his shirt (yes, he has been half-naked all this time) and shoved it down his head and neck, "So, are we leaving now? Why is everyone just ....standing?"
He looked around as the three people infront of him watched him with different expressions. Nayan looked plain disappointed. The Prince of Benevia watched him with a mixture of suspicion and morbid fascination. And Tish looked like she had ate her own vomit.
"You are absolutely disgusting," she muttered under her breath and turned away, "Your Majesty, please take care of this matter. I am afraid I cannot be around this creature without suffering from acute headache." She leaned against the doorframe on her way out.
Once she had left, Prince Mamon spoke again, "You're not taking her away, no," his tone suggested this was absolute, "You broke her once. I cannot let you break her again."
"Dramatic much?" Rudra scoffed.
The Prince didn't shout, he didn't attack him. He just watched Rudra with shoulders slumped, eyes boring into his with a retired look. He looked....tired.
''It has been..," he started, "Only a month since she had started talking. And she still hasn't smiled once after returning from Partha."
He looked up at Rudra, "What have you done to her? "
Rudra froze. He tried to remember if he had hit her or used any harsh words against her atleast once. But he couldn't. There had been not a single moment when Rudra had acted violent around her. He had only maintained the cold distance even Parthan Royal ought to maintain with their spouse or fianceé or any sort of love interest. Because love itself is deadly to the dragons.
Because if a dragon falls in love, the dragon dies or dies the Love.
"I have done nothing to her!" He snarled out, "We didn't even talk much!"
Rudra could see gears shifting in Mamon's head, "Oh," he mused, "You're so much more cruel than I had imagined."
Rudra stared. Confused. He didn't ask why had the Prince of Benevia looked at him that way. He couldn't for he was wearing he'd find an answer he didn't want.
The Prince didn't bid any farewell. He simply walked to the door, "Tomorrow at dawn, you're going down to the swamp. You're fixing whatever you are able to fix. It won't lessen the sin you have committed. But," he turned one last time to look at Rudra, "You said you see human beings same as we see when we hunt birds and animals to eat? Then you must do what we do. We eat what we make. And you. Will eat what you make."
"You will taste the disasters you've caused, Dragon and then we'll see if your appetite for death still remains intact."
With that he was gone.
_____________________________________
Even though the war had ended two days ago, it seemed the Capital City of Benevia was still burning. The walls near the periphery glowed dark amber, the sky was covered in so much smoke it was hard to tell whether it was the day time or night. Rā, the river, in the West Bank of which Benevia is situated, was completely melted and flowing even in dead winter. The dams that regulated the water flow in the artificial canals drawn from Rā to supply water during winter was no where to be seen. The low bank was completely submerged under a thick soup of mud, bricks, woods and... corpses. The only reason that the bodies hadn't started rottening was probably because of the low temperature.
Rudra stood at the top of the High Bank, hands shackled, escorted by Nayan and the Prince of Benevia himself. He looked around, everyone was running, shouting- but in reality? Nothing was getting done. Atleast not fast enough.
Mamon shoved him from behind, "Go down!" He snapped, "Standing here and just staring will not erase what you have done!" Rudra turned around, eyebrows twitching in annoyance. Had Tris not given him this challenge he would have bitten off this man's head a while ago.
He showed his shackled hands, "This. I can't work with my teeth, can I?" Mamon just threw him a coil of rope- thick, made of bark of some tree, "You can move your fingers and wrists- that is enough freedom already, keep talking and I'll put a collar on your neck."
Rudra inhaled, trying to reign his anger. He couldn't snap. Not now. Not when he had a silver line of getting Tris back. He didn't comment on the insult the Benevian Prince had thrown at him. Instead he uttered, "So where do I start?"
"At the bottom," Mamon jerked his chin towards the submerged lands, "You collect the deads and return them to their families."
Rudra looked away from him and at the flooded low bank again. Many many years ago, in childhood, he had seen many ant colonies in the woods around the castle of Partha. There were quite a few numbers of these colonies- both of fire ants and black ants in the untended parts of the Royale Woods- the parts where Rudra and other kids weren't supposed to hang out but they would do it anyway simply because they were forbidden to do it. Sometimes some kids would bring water to flood the colonies- a form of entertainment Rudra didn't really find amusing but he never stopped the other kids. Why should he? Who even cared about insignificant ants?!
So he would watch as his companions poured water from their pouch upon the colonies with grins too wide for their little faces. The ants would float out, a few struggling to swim while others stiff and dead, letting the current take them wherever it wanted.
Now it felt to Rudra as if Mamon had asked him to rescue those dead ants. He didn't argue ofcourse. He picked up the coil and marched down the High bank, his boots sinking into the wet mud.
"Do hurry, Dragon!" Called the Prince from behind, "The flood water is returning to the river and the water will take everything in it with it. Including the bodies," he was saying, "I'd like to have most of the families to have the bodies of their beloved deceased ones when they'll hold funeral. The price of every minute you waste will be paid by a family unable to send off their ghost properly without a body!"
Rudra heard every word the Prince said. But he didn't stop walking. He kept his eyes on the floating ants . He was determined to do his best.
Not because he didn't want to let down the livings or the deads. But because he refused to let her down .